Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stepped up his personal attacks on Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese over his government’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state, saying Albanese’s political record had been damaged forever, Reuters reports.

Diplomatic ties between Australia and Israel have soured since Albanese’s centre-left Labour government last week announced it would conditionally recognise Palestinian statehood, following similar moves by France, Britain and Canada.

Netanyahu doubled down on his condemnation in an interview to be broadcast on Sky News Australia.

“I think his record is forever tarnished by the weakness that he showed in the face of this Hamas terrorist monsters,” Netanyahu said, after describing Albanese earlier this week as “a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”.

Sky News Australia released the comments ahead of the broadcast of the full interview on Thursday at 8pm (3pm PKT).